A machine of this type is known, for example, from East German Pat. No. 114,012 according to which wet sand is deposited as an energy-transfer medium on a workpiece to be formed, leaving a cavity into which the explosive charge is manually introduced; the workpiece is then clamped between a lower and an upper die whereupon the charge is detonated. Disadvantages of this arrangement are the need for manual operation and the requirement for safety precautions to protect the operator, as well as the discontinuity of the procedure.
Bulgarian authors' certificate No. 29,312, issued to us jointly with several others, discloses a device for the forming of profiled bars with the aid of an explosive charge. Blanks to be formed into such bars are placed, two at a time, in respective dies on a base and are each clamped in position by a pressure plate with the aid of a power cylinder whose piston has a bore for the electrical detonation of an explosive charge by way of a hole in the plate aligned with that bore; an energy-transfer medium is introduced from below through a channel in the die. This device operates only with partial automation, requires considerable intervening time between forming operations and consumes much energy.